Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus having a storage device that stores data such as a file or a folder, capable of displaying information relating to the data stored in the storage device in response to requests from a plurality of users, a control method, and a program.
Description of the Related Art
A data processing apparatus having a storage device such as a hard disk drive is generally well known. As an example of a data processing apparatus, there is a multi functional peripheral (MFP) having a scan function and a print function. The MFP performs a scan operation for storing image data, as a file, generated by scanning a document and a print operation for printing an image based on a file stored in a folder. The scan operation or the print operation in the MFP is generally instructed to be performed by a user via an operation unit provided for the MFP.
Recently, data processing apparatuses having a storage device have been operated as file servers by using a file sharing protocol such as a server message block (SMB). When a data processing apparatus is operated as a file server, easy access is realized from an external device which is connected by the Internet or local area network (LAN) to the storage device in the data processing apparatus. Further, a file can be stored in the storage device of the data processing apparatus from the external device (so a file can be transferred from an external device to the storage device of the data processing apparatus).
The data processing apparatus having the storage device is shared (accessed) by a large number of users. Therefore, the number of files or folders (hereinbelow, a file or folder is also generically referred to as an object) stored in the storage device may increase enormously. As the number of objects becomes larger it is harder to find the object, which is an operation target (so the file or folder required by the user), from a list of a plurality of objects thereby inconveniencing the user.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-252154, when a user requests a list of objects to be displayed, all stored objects are not displayed but only an object having a relation to the user who requests a list of objects is displayed. As a consequence, the object which is the operation target is easily found from the list of a plurality of objects. Specifically, for each user access authority is set for a plurality of objects stored in the storage device. Only the objects for which the access authority has been set are displayed to the user who requests the list of objects. By preventing the display of an object having a relation to another user, only the user's required objects are displayed and the target object is easily found.
When a data processing apparatus is operated as a file server, the user having administrator authority may need to delete an unnecessary file of other users or perform maintenance such as virus check. More specifically, the user having the administrator authority needs to access not only their own objects stored in the storage device but also an object having a relation to other users. Therefore, in response to a display request from the user having the administrator authority, the objects related to other users are also displayed.